How to Prevent Excitement Pee in Dogs

You are not alone if your dog pees when visitors come over or every time you come home from work. The best way to stop your dog’s excitement pee problem is to focus on stopping the excitement, not the pee.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pet stain removers
• Paper towels

1. Ignore the dog until it is calm. If your return home triggers your dog to pee, completely ignore your dog each time you enter. Do not look at the dog, speak to the dog, pet the dog or otherwise acknowledge the dog’s presence until it has calmed down. This may take 20 minutes or more.

2. Acknowledge the dog when it is calm. Once your dog has calmed down and begins to ignore you, calmly speak to it or silently pet it on the head. Instruct all visitors to do the same. Ignoring your dog will not make it feel rejected. This simply informs the dog that it must change its method of greeting you in order to be acknowledged sooner.

3. Remain consistent. Desensitizing your dog to exciting situations will take weeks or months, so consistency during this period is crucial. Eventually, your dog will consider your arrival and the arrival of visitors as totally boring events and it will not need any time to calm down before it can be touched or spoken to without peeing.

4. When your dog does pee, silently and quickly clean the mess. Because a dog that pees out of excitement is not aware that he is peeing, punishment only confuses him and may cause him to deliberately pee as a symbol of his submission to you--who now seem unpredictably hostile. Use a pet stain remover that removes all traces of the mess and avoids bringing attention to the pee.

Tips & Warnings

• Taking your dog to relieve itself will not solve the problem. You cannot stop dogs from peeing as they always keep a well-supplied reserve of urine stored for territorial marking.
• You'll know your dog is calm when he starts playing with his toys, he sits or lays down, or walks away to find something else to do. If your dog is sitting, but staring intently at you with a wagging tail, your dog is not yet calm.
• If your dog becomes excited by a friendly stranger when you're not at home, inform the person that your dog is in training and may pee if pet. The person will be gracious for the warning and will respect your request.
• Do not be disappointed if your dog has stopped peeing from excitement for several months and unexpectedly has a relapse. Quietly clean the mess and reinforce the training for a few more weeks.
• If your dog continues to pee, take him to a veterinarian to be sure there is no medical problem.
• If your dog is easily excited, he may just need more exercise. Adequate exercise and structured walks help prevent many undesired behaviors.